The Strasbourg-based Council of Europe is the continent’s leading human rights organization, and oversees the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
In 2019, Jagland opposed Russia’s potential withdrawal from the body amid disputes over Ukraine’s Crimea, warning it would be a “huge setback” for human rights by depriving 144 million Russians of the right to seek legal redress at the ECHR.
The Epstein emails, among the thousands of pages of documents released Wednesday by the U.S. House Oversight Committee, provide new insight into the convicted sex offender’s extensive network of political and business contacts, and his apparent efforts to influence or advise foreign governments during Donald Trump’s first term as U.S. president.
In some messages, Epstein claimed he had been advising Russian officials on better understanding Trump’s approach to diplomacy and negotiation.
The emails add to evidence illustrating Epstein’s attempts to maintain access to international political figures well after his 2008 conviction for soliciting an underage girl for prostitution until shortly before his 2019 arrest on sex-trafficking charges.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a briefing Wednesday that the broader set of emails “prove absolutely nothing other than President Trump did nothing wrong” — while Trump accused the opposition Democrats of “trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein hoax” to “deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown.”
This story has been updated with a comment from Thorbjørn Jagland.